244 SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS 



The Senate Committee on Military Affairs finished in January its 

 work on the Army reorganization bill (S. 3792) and in the bill as re- 

 ported in the Senate on January 28 (Rep. 400) the Committee provided 

 for a separate Chemical Warfare Service in the Army. 126 officers 

 and 1200 enlisted men are provided in this Service. The correspond- 

 ing House bill (H. R. 12775) which was reported February 26 (Rep. 

 680) provides 91 officers and 1500 men. During the debate on the 

 bill in the House the Chemical Warfare paragraph was criticized as 

 prescribing no duties for the Ser\dce, but no change was made. The 

 bill was passed by the House on March 18. 



A committee of the House made a tour of inspection to the Govern- 

 ment nitrate plants near Muscle Shoals, Alabama, in the latter part 

 of January', to obtain information relative to the feasibility of their 

 private operation. Hearings on the Senate bilP to establish the United 

 States Fixed Nitrogen Corporation (S. 3390, Mr. Wadsworth, Novem- 

 ber 7, 191 9) were begun before the Senate Committee on Agriculture in 

 the latter part of March. 



A new departure in weights and measures is embodied in S. 3943, 

 introduced (by request) by Mr. King, one of the Senators from Utah, 

 on February 18. The bill is entitled: "A bill to establish the stand- 

 ard and decimal divisions of the weights, measures and coins of the 

 United States." A similar bill, with minor changes, was introduced 

 in the House by Mr. Welling, a representative from Utah, on March 

 I (H. R. 12850). The character of the plan may be indicated by the 

 fact that the English foot is made the fundamental unit, with sub- 

 divisions into a "decimal inch" which is one-tenth of a foot, and a 

 "common inch" which is one-twelfth of a foot. This plan of a mul- 

 tiple set of factors is carried through the system, which is intermit- 

 tently octaval, decimal or duodecimal. The bills were referred to the 

 Senate Committee on Standards, Weights and Measures, and the House 

 Committee on Coinage, Weights and Measures, respectively. Edi- 

 torial writers in the technical press seem in some doubt as to whether 

 the bill is a serious proposal, a practical joke, or a "smoke screen" in 

 anticipation of metric legislation. 



Metric legislation has been compiled into the form of a bill, but has 

 not yet been introduced, at this writing. Meanwhile, an extensive 

 brief in opposition to the introduction of a "metric system bill" was 

 submitted in March to the House Committee on Coinage, Weights and 

 Measures, by the American Institute of Weights and Measures. 



The report of the Joint Commission on Reclassification of Salaries^ 

 was presented to Congress on March 12, but at this writing no legis- 

 lation based on the report has been introduced. 



* The House bill is H. R. 10329. See this Journai, 9: 646. 1919. 

 5 This JoiTRNAL 10: 148. 1920. 



